The present invention relates generally to media presentation, and more particularly to an interface for sharing posts about a live online event among users of a social networking system.
Social networking systems include social utilities that track and enable connections between users (including people, businesses, and other entities). In particular, social networking systems allow users to communicate information more efficiently and to associate themselves with other users, thus creating a web of connections among the users of the social networking system. Users commonly share information with one another via the social networking system. A user can post text and content (e.g., photos, videos, music, links, or any other type of digital or other content that can be posted on the Internet) or a combination of both, and can post comments relating to other users and their posts. These types of user posts or “news stories” can be displayed to users in a feed or stream of content (either on a social networking website or elsewhere).
Posts and related comments by users sharing information on the social networking system sometimes tend toward particular topics or current events. When a noteworthy event has occurred or is in progress, many of the posts on the social networking system will be directed toward this event or related topics. A user interested in this event may be interested in reading the posts of other users directly relating to the event, many times in conjunction with concurrently watching or attending the event (e.g. the Super Bowl, the Oscars, the presidential inauguration, etc.). Yet, in a social networking system, posts related to a particular event are typically mixed in with a variety of unrelated content and can, therefore, be lost in the shuffle or difficult to follow.
Technology today allows many events to be captured and viewed on television, the Internet, etc. These broadcast accounts of events (e.g. via video, audio, text description, etc.) can be followed by users on television, websites, mobile devices, and so forth. A user can easily follow the broadcast of an event of interest while the event is actually happening or being broadcast. However, to share this event with other users of a social networking system, the user has to do so separately from following the event itself. Using means that are not associated with the event to post about the event may result in the user's post not being read by others until the post is stale and the event has ended or has moved on to a new topic. There is no easy way for the user to simultaneously follow an event outside a social networking system while interacting about the event in real time with other users of a social networking system (or other users following the event in general). There is also no mechanism for capturing and using these interactions back in the social networking system.